


Rivals in Love (the Innocent Bystander remix)

by blueorangecrush



Category: Hockey RPF
Genre: M/M, Multi, POV Outsider, Post-Trade, Secret Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-09
Updated: 2017-04-09
Packaged: 2018-10-16 15:29:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,674
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10574181
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/blueorangecrush/pseuds/blueorangecrush
Summary: Shea's trying to be a good, understanding team captain.  It's just - he really doesn't think that players should date other players.  It messes them up, messes with team chemistry.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [dragons_and_angels](https://archiveofourown.org/users/dragons_and_angels/gifts).
  * Inspired by [Rivals In Love](https://archiveofourown.org/works/8575066) by [dragons_and_angels](https://archiveofourown.org/users/dragons_and_angels/pseuds/dragons_and_angels). 



> Hi, dragons_and_angels! I hope you enjoy the remix - when I was assigned this fic, what I kept coming back to is Shea's obvious discomfort with the whole situation, and then of course THAT TRADE that happened, so I ran with it.
> 
> [Note: RL wives appear in this fic, including in a poly situation - if that's not your jam you may wish to avoid this.]

Shea has never been comfortable with Nealer and Paulie being together.

He’s also never been comfortable with saying he’s not comfortable with it.  He doesn’t want to look like he’s prejudiced, like he’s some kind of homophobe, like he’s _that_ team captain that a gay player would want to avoid at all costs.  Because that’s not _it._

Sure, he put on his best listening ears and approachable-captain demeanor when Nealer came to the team and told him about Paulie, but that didn’t mean he felt great about it.  He’s the only one so far to know that Nealer’s “girlfriend” back in Pittsburgh is really a boyfriend, is really a player that they’re going to face off against.

They had been teammates, Nealer and Paulie.  They had been teammates and Shea’s always thought that was a bad idea.  Shea’s had his ups and downs with Bailey over all the years they’ve been together, and sometimes being able to go away to the rink helped him get over whatever argument he might be having with her.  He can’t even imagine not being able to get that distance, not being able to put his home life _aside_ at the rink.  When Nealer and Paulie both played for the Pens, they wouldn’t be able to avoid each other.  Shea has no idea how they could stand that.

It’s got nothing to do with them both being guys.  If women played in the NHL, if Paulie had been Paula, it would have been just as uncomfortable for Shea.  If they weren’t NHL players – if they were doctors working at the same hospital – that would be just as uncomfortable.  You’ve got to be able to get away, it’s the only reason Bailey can still put up with Shea, he’s sure of it. 

But then – well, Nealer and Paulie got all the separation they could want and then some.  Because part of hockey life is getting traded, and that means Nealer’s here and Paulie’s there, and it seems to be straining Nealer’s ability to fit in with the rest of the team.

As the season rolls along, Shea wonders if he’s overreacting.  The coaching staff trusts Nealer, and the players are coming around even if it seemed to Shea like they were slow to warm up to Nealer.

Maybe he’d just been overthinking it.

\--

When Paulie gets traded to the Sharks, Shea doesn’t think too much of it.  It means that Nealer will face him three times a season instead of two.  It might mean Nealer starts trying to come up with weird explanations for why his “girlfriend” in Pittsburgh just happens to have moved to California, or with some other reason why he doesn’t ever want to hang out with the team when they’re in San Jose, but Shea really can’t help Nealer that much there. 

It all works out, though, sort of.  Right up until Nashville matches up with San Jose in the playoffs.  Right up until Shea has to do the uncomfortable thing, has to ask Nealer about something that he would really rather have not be his business.

He doesn’t _want_ to check in with Nealer.  But he feels like he needs to.  He’s the captain and it’s just…the thing to do, right?  Nealer doesn’t exactly appreciate the accusation that he might be ambivalent about the results of a playoff series, even if Shea didn’t mean it like that.

And as the series goes on, Shea learns more than he _ever_ wanted to know about Nealer’s sex life, and gets stuck mediating arguments between Nealer and Jojo about “loyalty” to the team that end in Nealer telling Jojo the truth about their relationship, that his “girlfriend” is actually a boyfriend and a fellow NHLer. 

Because this is just the kind of distraction that a team needs in the middle of a playoff run?

They take it to seven games, somehow, but San Jose wins the seventh.

Shea tries to take comfort in the outcome – they weren’t really supposed to make it past the Ducks, but pulled the upset and at least made life difficult for the Sharks. 

He could look forward.  He could say all the right things about “next year” and almost believe them.  He could put his best effort into _not_ blaming Nealer for the final outcome, for _not_ thinking that if only somehow Nealer had been a little less distracted by Paulie, some kind of funky butterfly-effect might have given the Predators the series, and from there who knows?

\--

There wouldn’t be a next year.  Not like the one they had just had, anyway.

None of the drama between Nealer and Paulie was Shea’s problem anymore, because he wasn’t a captain anymore.  Because the Predators weren’t his _team_ anymore. 

He was being traded to Montreal.  For P.K.-fucking-Subban.  He was about to be one of the most hated men in the entire province of Quebec, and it wasn’t for anything that he had done or said or even had any control over. 

Shea hopes that somehow people would understand that he hadn’t asked to be traded there, that he certainly wasn’t trying to take Montreal’s best-loved player away from his community.  That maybe they would understand he hadn’t wanted to leave Nashville any more than P.K. wanted to leave Montreal. 

He’d hoped for less locker room drama and this seemed like it would be just asking for more. 

\--

He’s surprised when the first people from his new team to reach out to him are Carey and Angie Price.  He would have thought that there might be some resentment there, since everyone knew that Carey and P.K. were super-close and had been for years, but if anything, Carey and Angie seemed to want to go out of their way to reassure Shea that they knew nothing about this situation was his fault.  They invited Shea and Bailey to come stay while they looked for a place, and Angie immediately took Bailey under her wing and made sure that Bailey got to know the other wives and girlfriends of Shea’s new team. 

He’s relieved when the rest of the team, at least, doesn’t seem to bear him any ill will, even as season ticket holders continue to call in their complaints and sometimes even cancel subscriptions that had been in their families for decades. 

He doesn’t want to be surrounded by this kind of controversy.  It’s a distraction. Dealing with Nealer’s big gay inter-team romance was so much easier than _this._

But the fuss dies down a little bit as the season starts.  Shea gets an assist in his first game with Montreal, gets a goal in his fourth.  The team has good nights and bad nights, but more good than bad, and Shea might not have a C on his sweater anymore, but he’s got an A on his new team and that means something.

\--

Shea and Carey get picked for the All-Star Game, and that’s when Carey warns Shea not to expect to see too much of him, that he’s going to be spending as much time with P.K. as he possibly can.

This is…weirdly familiar.  It’s a little bit like when Nealer told Shea about Paulie.  But that isn’t – can’t be – right.  Carey’s _married._   Shea and his wife spend all kinds of time with Carey and _his_ wife.

But it _is_ right.  Apparently all three of them were…together?  And the wrong person figuring that out, or the risk of that, might have been part of why P.K. was traded? 

Montreal management hates “distractions”, after all – Shea is well aware of that.  And the wrong people hearing about a relationship like that at the wrong time, getting it into the media?

There couldn’t _be_ a bigger distraction than that. 

What surprises Shea is that there is no way he would have known without being told, that it never seems to affect Carey.  He doesn’t know how Carey does that – maybe he’s too used to how Nealer was about Paulie.

Or maybe that’s just something else he’s been wrong about, all along.  Even when they’d come back to play Nashville, just a few weeks before the All-Star break, Shea had been worried that it would rattle _him,_ being in the visitors’ locker room of Bridgestone.  But he’d kept it together, even managed to score a goal against Pekka.  He’d done all right.

\--

It’s harder when the Predators come to Montreal.  P.K. is openly crying at his tribute, and Carey is obviously choked up along with him.  There are _so many_ #76 jerseys, both in Montreal red and Nashville yellow.  The atmosphere is overwhelming, it’s too much – but somehow, they still come through with the win.

It leaves Shea with a lot to think about.  Mostly, he thinks that he owes Nealer an apology, maybe a whole bunch of apologies.  This game got in Shea’s head and under his skin, and it had to be worse for Carey, but Carey was _solid_ despite everything, only letting one goal in, not letting up against his boyfriend’s team the entire time.  Shea was the one having trouble with it.

Carey can do that and do it well.  Shea had been wrong to believe that Nealer couldn’t.  They needed to talk, needed to make this right.

And maybe that was part of why this trade needed to happen.  Maybe Shea needed to not be captain of a team until he could face his own biases, until he could admit that there were things he was wrong about.  Maybe he had to learn to believe people when they said they were capable of being professionals, instead of second-guessing them.

He says as much to Nealer, on the phone the next day, and Nealer laughs, reassures him the apology was accepted.  And then throws in a couple comments about exactly what he will be looking forward to next time the Predators go up against the Sharks, which is more than Shea needed to know, but that’s okay.  Shea just laughs it off.


End file.
